Dual Nvidia - NON SLI - High resolution

[jimi_hoffa]

I am currently running a EVGA GTX 570 1200GB card. I just purchased a new monitor, Dell U2711. I notice a huge hit now, and I think its due to driving two monitors. My primary is 2560x1440 and my secondary is 1920x1200 (Dell UlstraSharp 24). If I am gaming on the 2560x1440, everything is fine. As soon as I start multitasking on the secondary monitor (mainly firefox with a moderate number of tabs open) my framerate in games drops drastically. As soon as I close the browser(or other random apps) and restart my game I go back to 130 fps (non vsync obviously). While gaming my GPU and VRAM is fully utilized. I assume that game + driving things on the second display just overtax the card.

What I am curious about is if I were to add my old GTX 285 (given my PS would support it) would I be able to dedicate my 570 to driving my primary 2560x1440 monitor, while I offload multitask to the 285 on the 24" monitor?

The obvious solution is to buy a 590 with 3gb of ram(I dont want to spend 750$) or go with a SLI setup of my same 570 (550 after card and new power supply probably).

Thanks in advance for your time and suggestions.

 

[jemm]

How do you game and browser the web at the same time?

 

[jimi_hoffa]

Full screen windowed mode. Mouse pointer moves off the game screen onto the second monitor and right into a browser.

 

[jimi_hoffa]

I mistyped, and corrected my my original post. I am currently running a single GTX 570.

It's not lag, its frame rate reduction, from 120 fps to 15 fps.

It is multitasking, and it is designed for that. I was previously running the 24" 1900x1200 as my main display, and a 22" 1680x1050 I think. This worked just fine. I was able to have games running on the primary at full resolution, while browsing, skype, pandora, pidgin, etc running on my second monitor. I only notice the FPS drop when I multitask now that I have increases both my primary and secondary monitors resolution.

 

[jimi_hoffa]

No, it requires me closing all applications, and then restarting my game.

I appreciate your help, but it is 100% certainly possible to do this with zero difficulty. My original question wasn't was what I do possible it was in regards to using a second video card in a non-sli configuration to drive multiple monitors. Much like people use to do pre-pci-x with an AGP card and a PCI card.

 

[jimi_hoffa]

As I stated in my original post, I don't want to spend 750$ on a 590, and was hoping for other more creative options. If I install the second video card and dont use it as a PhysX card can I use it to drive multiple displays?

 

[fredude_90]

I am currently running a EVGA GTX 470 1200GB card. I just purchased a new monitor, Dell U2711. I notice a huge hit now, and I think its due to driving two monitors. My primary is 2560x1440 and my secondary is 1920x1200 (Dell UlstraSharp 24). If I am gaming on the 2560x1440, everything is fine. As soon as I start multitasking on the secondary monitor (mainly firefox with a moderate number of tabs open) my framerate in games drops drastically. As soon as I close the browser(or other random apps) and restart my game I go back to 130 fps (non vsync obviously). While gaming my GPU and G MEM is fully utilized. I assume that game + driving things on the second display just overtax the card.

What I am curious about is if I were to add my old GTX 285 (given my PS would support it) would I be able to dedicate my 570 to driving my primary 2560x1440 monitor, while I offload multitask to the 285 on the 24" monitor?

The obvious solution is to buy a 590 with 3gb of ram(I dont want to spend 750$) or go with a SLI setup of my same 570 (550 after card and new power supply probably).

Thanks in advance for your time and suggestions.

yeah, it'll work, had to do the same thing a while back. The only snag you'll see is when you're moving GPU intensive programs from one monitor to the other, the hand off between video cards often doesnt work as smoothly as it could.

 

[jimi_hoffa]

Spectacular. I really didnt want to just blind try this since its going require relocating my iodrive and my sound card, but if it works it will be worth it. I shouldn't have to worry about handing anything off to the other card other than explorer windows, web browsers, skype, something like that. Should all be low vram stuff, but it just happens to be enough vram/gpu usage to push my 570 over the edge when im running large texture high AA on the primary.

Do you mind if I ask why you had to do it?

 

[13thmonkey]

I'm also doing the same thing, GT220 and a GTX470, 220 for my side monitor (1680x1050) and the GTX for my main monitor 2048x1152.

Mainly so that the GTX would idle properly, much cooler now and a lot less power when not gaming. Doubt you'll see similar reductions with 285 though.

 

[fredude_90]

Spectacular. I really didnt want to just blind try this since its going require relocating my iodrive and my sound card, but if it works it will be worth it. I shouldn't have to worry about handing anything off to the other card other than explorer windows, web browsers, skype, something like that. Should all be low vram stuff, but it just happens to be enough vram/gpu usage to push my 570 over the edge when im running large texture high AA on the primary.

Do you mind if I ask why you had to do it?

For the same reason as you, I upgraded to a higher res monitor, and i was taking an FPS hit when my card was pushing both monitors.

 

[jimi_hoffa]

Excellent. Made my morning. Have a good day sir!

 

[jimi_hoffa]

Best answer selected by jimi_hoffa.

 

[fredude_90]

Excellent. Made my morning. Have a good day sir!

Anytime, glad i could help.